Acceptable Use Policy and Terms Of Service

Last revised October 25, 2003 (version 1.0)

Purpose

This Acceptable Use Policy and Terms of Service describes the agreement between Nice Guys Hosting, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "NGH") and customers who use NGH's hosting services (hereinafter referred to as "Customer(s)"). All Customers must adhere to the rules below in order to use NGH's services. Use of NGH's services implies acceptance of this agreement.

Interpretation

The provisions of this Policy are intended as guidelines and are not meant to be exhaustive. Generally, conduct that violates law, regulation, or the accepted norms of the Internet community, whether or not expressly mentioned in this Policy, is prohibited. NGH reserves the right at all times to prohibit activities that damage its commercial reputation and goodwill or interfere with services provided to other customers.

Copyright, Privacy, and Intellectual Property

Using NGH's services to commit, aid or abet any violation of copyright or intellectual property law is prohibited.

E-Mail may pass through multiple mail servers on the Internet as it passes from source to destination. While NGH has implemented various technological measures such as SMTP-TLS to improve privacy, Customer can never be guaranteed privacy from every possible mail server. Any Customer seeking total privacy should use some encryption scheme to render their messages unreadable by eavesdroppers. NGH places a high value on privacy, and will only examine Customer's email when absolutely required, such as when troubleshooting email delivery problems or being presented with a search warrant for the information.

NGH's Customer's privacy is an important concern. Therefore, Customer's email address(es) and/or personal information will never be offered for sale or for commercial distribution by NGH to third parties for any reason.

Security

Any "denial of service" attack, any attempt to breach authentication or security measures, or any unauthorized attempt to gain access to any other account, host or network is prohibited, and will result in immediate service termination, which may be without notice.

E-Mail and Usenet News

Using any NGH account or server to send duplicative, unsolicited email messages (commercial or otherwise) also known as spam and/or to collect the responses from unsolicited email (spam) and/or using a NGH server or bandwidth to host any page(s), or mailboxes, or autoresponders with any information regarding any item, service, or information advertised in a spam message is prohibited. NGH reserves the exclusive right to make the determination whether a given message is spam. E-Mail is a person-to-person medium, not a broadcast medium. Any Customer sending spam messages will be charged a processing fee of $100 per individual message sent to clean up servers, relations, and otherwise deal with the aftermath. Every individual recipient shall be considered a distinct and individual message. All Customers consent to this fee by use of any NGH service or connection. In addition - if a Customer sends spam, as soon as NGH is notified, Customer's account will immediately be terminated. Period. No second chances, no excuses. NGH will provide no refund whatsoever for any Customer account terminated due to a spam violation. Similarly, using any NGH account or server to post advertisements or messages that violate the charter of any newsgroup or mailing list is prohibited.

NGH reserves the right to make the determination whether a given message violates the newsgroup or mailing list charter. In most cases NGH will defer to the judgment of the newsgroup or mailing list moderator or administrator.

Commercial messages that are appropriate under the charter of a newsgroup or mailing list, or that are expressly solicited by the recipients, are permitted. Conduct in connection with email or usenet news that is an obvious nuisance (such as spam) or that would be unlawful in other contexts (for example, threats, harassment, or software piracy) is prohibited.

Dynamic Content Scripts

CGI scripts and other server-side dynamic content scripts are very powerful tools that also have great potential for abuse. If a Customer's contract includes server-side dynamic content scripts, Customer is responsible for insuring that the scripts are secure, that the scripts do not allow access to unauthorized data or resources, that the scripts do not allow relaying or proxying, and that the scripts do not consume undue resources. If a security vulnerability is discovered in a script hosted for a Customer, that Customer is responsible for immediately patching the vulnerabilty or disabling the script. Failure to do so may result in termination of Customer's ability to host dynamic content scripts. Customer is responsbile for any damage caused by scripts hosted within Customer's account.

All dynamic content scripts are subject to approval by NGH. Approval of a script may be withdrawn at NGH's sole descreption if NGH discovers that it is causing problems, using undue resources, violates system security, or permits unauthorized use. Scripts with formmail in their names are forbidden; other scripts that send email must be secured to prevent the sending of unauthorized email.

Forgery of Identity

Falsifying addressing information or otherwise modifying headers to conceal the sender's or recipient's identity, for the purpose of circumventing this Policy, is prohibited. This provision is not intended to disallow the use of aliases or anonymous remailers for any legitimate purpose.

IRC (Internet Relay Chat)

Using programs that interfere with others' use, or running an IRC robot, on any IRC server is prohibited. When logged into any IRC server, users are expected to comply with the rules and policies established by the server's administrator. Furthermore - no IRC servers are permitted anywhere on any NGH network(s). IRC servers are inherently insecure and are often used to lauch distributed denial of service attacks against other servers and/or networks. The resulting retaliatory distributed DOS attacks can cripple NGH's network and affect services provided to all customers. NGH reserves the right to immediately end all services provided without refund if an IRC server is found running in any customer account.

Illegal Material

NGH bears certain legal liabilities for the use of its computer network and equipment. As such NGH must require that its customers do not use NGH's network for illegal purposes. When presented with a search warrant, NGH is obligated to release any information named therein, and will cooperate with the authorities in any criminal investigation of inappropriate Internet usage. However, NGH recognizes that the legal status of the Internet has not yet been resolved satisfactorily, either through legislation or court precedent. Therefore NGH must make certain decisions regarding the illegality of various specific actions. Among the actions NGH considers illegal and therefore not allowed on its network are: unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material; exploitation of minors; and unauthorized use of computer resources. NGH believes that the First Amendment rights of free speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of association apply to the Internet to the same degree as they do to print media, and that any attempt to infringe upon those rights is void of legitimacy.

Cooperation with Other Providers

Using NGH's services to engage in activities that violate the Terms of Service of any other network access provider is prohibited. For example, sending unsolicited commercial email through NGH's servers or networks to the subscribers of any Internet or online service provider that disallows unsolicited commercial email is prohibited.

Consequences of Violation

Violation of this Policy by a NGH customer may result in temporary suspension or permanent termination of service, at NGHs sole discretion. NGH does not issue service credits for any outages incurred through service disablement resulting from policy violations.

Modification

NGH reserves the right to add, delete, or modify any provision of this Policy at any time without notice.

Responsible Usage

NGH exercises absolutely no control over the content of the information passing through or contained on NGH's system(s) or connection(s); NGH only provides access. The Customer must take responsibility for Customer's actions on NGH's system(s) and any system(s) Customer may access using NGH's service. The Customer must comply with whatever rules or acceptable usage policies are in force for each system accessed. If the Customer acts irresponsibly or the Customer's actions endanger our systems, connections, or other customers' privileges, or if NGH receives notice about such behavior NGH may suspend Customer's access at any time, without notice.

Content

It is the Customer's responsibility to actively avoid any content offensive to said Customer on any system that may be reached using access provided by NGH. The Customer takes full responsibility for all statements made in email, chat or discussion forums and newsgroups.

The Internet and its users do not welcome unsolicited email (spam), multiple postings of the same information in newsgroups, advertising in most of the newsgroups (spam) or general disrespect for other users.

NGH has a policy of total non-censorship, unless the information is illegal and/or clearly used for fraud. Content providers must clearly identify material unsuitable for minors. Parents and guardians are responsible for exercising control over minor's access and connection to information on the Internet.

Account Usage

Customer is reponsible for all usage of Customer's accounts. For this reason Customer should protect account and password information in the same manner as Customer would protect any other personal resource such as a telephone calling card or credit card number.

Resource Usage

No system has unlimited resources. NGH expects Customers to act responsibly when using resources on our system. If a Customer consumes excessive resources on any NGH system(s) or connection(s) we may suspend or cancel Customer's access at any time. Excessive resources are defined as more resources than one person could reasonably consume during an interactive session. If the Customer's access is suspended or cancelled by NGH for excessive use of resources and/or irresponsible behavior or actions (to be determined solely by NGH), Customer may be entitled to the return of prepaid service fees on a prorated basis at the sole discretion of NGH.

Unlawful or Unauthorized Usage

NGH's network of information services may only be used for lawful purposes. Transmission of any material in violation of any State or Federal legislation is prohibited. This includes copyrighted material, material legally determined to be threatening and material protected by trade secret.

Any attempt by the Customer to access or modify any computer system information that said Customer is not authorized to access, or any attempt to interfere with normal system operations, whether on the equipment of NGH, or of any computer systems, or networks that can be accessed through NGH's services, will result in immediate suspension of Customer's access. Unauthorized activities include guessing or using passwords other than those belonging to the Customer, accessing information that does not have public permission, and accessing any systems on which Customer is not an authorized user.

NGH cooperates fully with government entities with proper jurisdiction and authorization while investigating unlawful activity on or via our systems or networks. NGH will seek damages for any incidents of unlawful or unauthorized usage of our systems or connections.

Termination of Service

When any account is canceled with 30 days advance written notice by the Subscriber and the account is in good standing when canceled, a pro-rated refund less any termination fees and/or penalties will be issued within 60 days via the same method of customer payment. Customers may be charged an early termination penalty as stipulated in the Customer's contract. All Customer email accounts, email messages, and web pages will be deleted immediately upon account termination. When an account is canceled by NGH for non-payment, violation of any or all of the terms above, or for any other reason at our sole discretion, no refund will be given and all Customer email accounts, email messages, and web pages may be deleted immediately.

Account Billing & Cancellation

Invoices are sent via postal mail or via email a minimum of 30 calendar days before the due date. When any account is past due for a period of more than 7 days, NGH may discontinue or suspend Customer's service for non-payment. If payment is not received within 7 days after the due date of any invoice, NGH is authorized to charge Customer's credit card on file for the full amount of any invoice due. A reconnection fee equivalent to the current installation/setup fee will be assessed and must be paid before account is reactivated. Discounted setup charges or other discounts as a result of any promotion(s) or special offer(s) may not be applied to service reconnection fees. After Customer's service is suspended for non-payment, a security deposit may be required (solely at the discretion of NGH) to reactive service. There will be no refund or credit by NGH to Customer for the time period for which service is suspended. Customer will continue to be billed and is liable for all NGH charges until service is permanently disconnected which will happen 30 days after suspension of service. When service is permanently disconnected for non-payment, the full amount due under Customer's contract or initial term will immediately be sent to collections and Customer will be liable for all legal and collections fees in addition to all service fees and early disconnection fees. To cancel a NGH account Customer must have fulfilled all of Customer's obligations under Customer's contract to NGH. Customer's obligations under all contracts include payment for all services requested by Customer and made available to Customer regardless of the use or non-use of said services. NGH will only cancel an account when Customer's contractual obligations are fulfilled and NGH is notified in writing at least 30 days before the end of the contract period. All Customer accounts will renew automatically for monthly periods unless both NGH and Customer agree to change the contract period in writing at least 30 days before the renewal of Customer's contract. Customers without a written contract are bound by the current NGH terms and conditions usage policy.

Subject To Change

The terms and conditions specified in this document are subject to change from time to time without notice, however all changes will be posted to http://www.niceguyshosting.com/aup.html which will always contain the current version.